


I Want to Know if There's a Future (For Me)

by Redacted_Blue



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bard!Sora, Chosen One!Riku, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28248582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redacted_Blue/pseuds/Redacted_Blue
Summary: This is not the Chosen One's story.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	I Want to Know if There's a Future (For Me)

**Author's Note:**

> I never thought I'd use this account to write something myself one day, so daunting! D: 
> 
> Long story short: Christmas makes me miserable.  
> I started writing this to make myself feel better, I wanted soft SoRiku with a bit of angst, and surprisingly, I do feel a bit better!  
> I caught myself editing it instead of letting it rot in a corner and... why not share it? 
> 
> PS: It's a bit late in my timezone, I hope the formatting's OK! 
> 
> [Title from "The Chosen One" by Smash Into Pieces]

The warmth of the tavern should have been enough to lull Riku to sleep. The twinkling sound of Sora's laugh a few feet behind him was keeping him awake, just enough so he wouldn't fall face first into his bowl of soup. Riku turned slightly around and caught a glimpse of chocolate hair turned auburn by the light of nearby wall torches. He earned a grin and a wink for his trouble and Riku, who once fought a sorceress who could turn into a fire-breathing dragon, certainly did not blush.

“If I know the Chosen One?” Sora asked brightly, sky-blue eyes big and earnest. “'Course I do! Brooding type, likes his coffee black, always busy saving the day, bit boring if you want my opinion. But have you heard about that time Riku and I...”

The young bard was now regaling his new friends with the tale of his and Riku's latest adventures at... whatever doomed places they had been lately. Riku still had some trouble remembering everything, though he was getting better. Sometimes he was still following his life's script as well as he could and that was it. Not that he had much choice in the first place. But Sora? Sora had all the choices and still decided to be with him and would go to literal Hell for him if he asked.

( _They already did, it was the_ worst.)

It was hard to forget that it was his fault Sora didn't have a normal life anymore. His fault Riku's enemies knew about the young bard and targeted him, thinking him weak. Which, to Riku's never-ending delight, was a huge mistake on their part: Sora was brutal with a sword. 

It was his fault if Sora would never know true peace for a long, long while. Because of his selfishness, his neediness, because he didn't even _try_ to make him leave, all because... Riku was the Chosen One. He wasn't bragging, Stars no, just thinking about those two little words side by side made him sick. And yet, it was... a fact. There were prophecies about him (dozens of them, dear gods...), songs transmitted through oral tradition for centuries, not even talking about that weird birth mark on his back that looked more and more like ink under his skin as time went on.

He also had a Star-damned, actual mythical sword named Way to Dawn, because of course the sword had a name, and it only answered to his call. And sometimes Sora's. Because _Sora_. 

Riku was the Chosen One and, breaking news! He probably had royal blood now. Because why not at this point, when will the crazy revelations ever stop? Stars, he was tired.

Thankfully, even though everybody knew about him, they did not really know him _per se_. He'd been hiding all his life to avoid the Chosen One's usual ruckus when people were involved. Now though, thanks to Sora's help, he didn't need to constantly stay in the darkest corners with his black hood on so much anymore. He could drink in a tavern in peace and no one could possibly guess that he was able to make a sword appear out of thin air. 

( _He remembers the first time Sora summoned Way to Dawn as a joke and it was like seeing his Heart appear in the bard's hand. Of course he can summon Way to Dawn, of course Sora can summon Riku's Heart at will. Of course._ ) 

“Y'know that story?” Sora asked him recently. “The one about the white-haired monster hunter? And how his best friend the bard writes songs about the hunter's exploits so people stop giving him the stinky eyes everywhere he goes?  
“Well lucky you, you also have your very own bard! 'Cept I'm making sure nobody can recognize you!”

_His bard_. Riku loved the sound of that.

“So anyway how d'you like Masamune?”  
“Who's Masamune?”  
“Your eight-foot long sword, duh!”  
“My what now?!”

And that was why lately he was described as a man with long hair, a black coat and a ridiculously long sword.

At present Riku's hair was cropped a bit too short for his taste, but he liked it. Especially since Sora got on his tippy toes, ran a hand through it and pushed a stray strand of hair away from his face, letting his hand linger on his cheek. His thumb brushed his cheekbone once, twice, until he smiled fondly and said that his hair was soft and cute, and how glad he was to see Riku's pretty eyes again.

Riku had almost died on the spot.

He was the Chosen One, but looking at his life today, was this really His story? He wondered, it didn't feel like the story of how Riku was going to defeat the Darkness and bring the Light back to all the inter-connected worlds. Not the story of how he will break the Curse turning people into Heartless, or the story of how he will bring back the Heroes of Light trapped into the Nether, and all that stuff people will read in books in the future. Because that was the Chosen One's life, books being written as things went on and most of it was spoiled by too many prophecies and songs.

( _Seriously, way too many, how come his enemies never saw him coming at this point?_ ) 

There used to be no surprises, only that one path laid out for him that he had to follow, because someone had to. And there were fifty arrows pointing in his direction and godly voices in his head reminding him that it was his Destiny. No pressure.

But this, drinking sub-par soup in a tavern with Sora, this was not the Chosen One's story. It was the story of how a boy, who certainly did not ask for this crap, stopped trusting people and traveled alone for years. The story of a young man who let Darkness in his heart and started wavering, unbeknownst to all. The story of Riku almost breaking down and pushing the World to its doom.

This was the story of how Sora found him in the dark and brought the dawn back. 

“Your Heart was calling me,” Sora had said, once.

When Riku asked him what his Heart sounded like, Sora's eyes turned so sad Riku never asked again.  
He also never questioned why Sora had decided to follow his Heart's calling, why he stayed with him, why it seemed like he would never leave. 

Sora wasn't in any prophecy. There was no mention of the bard with a thousand-volt smile singing silly songs about Riku falling in a swamp and mimicking his embarrassing one-liners in taverns. He probably was never going to be in any books, a footnote at best.  
Riku was baffled, to say the least, that such an incredible encounter was not Destiny's design. Sora was unexpected and wonderful and _his_ , so long as Sora wanted him as well. 

Maybe they were meant to be in a way even the gods of this world had no control over, the both of them against the Darkness. 

Before Sora, Riku had always traveled alone. He'd go from one place to another, do what he had to do and leave. Something shifted in his mind throughout the years, until he stopped making the simple effort of... remembering. The people he met, those he killed, his successes and failures, he wouldn't be able to tell you much about this part of his life.

Despite the mist in his head, he could however recall oh-so-well how pointless it all seemed. That was when he started to slip, he gathered. At some point he stopped feeling quite human, stopped thinking that there was more to life than swinging Way to Dawn, because that was what he was supposed to do, right? He was a Hero, he was Chosen, he was a Pawn in the grand scheme of things, what was there even to _think_ about?

Now, with Sora? Every new town meant new friends, new faces that Riku will try to remember this time, people that Sora helped in ways Riku couldn't. So Destiny wanted to turn Riku into a sword of Justice to protect the Greater Good? Oh, watch him do exactly that, for there was nothing greater than Sora's determination to help absolutely everyone blessed enough to cross his path.  
Riku was getting very good at stabbing anything trying to stop Sora from bringing peace and sunshine everywhere he went.

The best part was that it was _mutual_.

Riku was the Chosen One, but Sora was the true, self-made Hero they tell you about in fairy tales. He was self-taught in swordsmanship which made him unpredictable and fierce, and when they fought together? They were unstoppable. Their enemies were probably crying themselves to sleep at all times, dreading a fight against them.  


Sora would laugh in the face of every villains trying to get in their way like they were nothing, and Riku will never forget the day he threw a particularly mean right-hook at some snarky mage trying to tempt him back to the Darkness.

Stars, Riku loved Sora. He never knew loving could be so easy. 

He couldn't wait to use his maybe-royal blood to track down the Fae King he would have to beg for a chance to marry this wonderful boy. Giving away his maybe-Kingdom for Sora's hand barely seemed enough of a dowry.

Sora deserved everything and yet... he had been following Riku in the darkest depth of this Star, helping him fight the craziest shit just because he wanted to? Because he believed in Riku? Because... he liked him?

Maybe-royal blood or not, Riku did not deserve Sora.

He did not deserve to feel so warm in this tavern, a new victory on his belt, the memory of Sora's arms around him and tingling lips still fresh in his mind. Not after falling so far into Darkness in the past and being tempted again and again and _again_. One day Sora will realize that and leave him and Riku will never feel warm again and—

“Please stop thinking,” a voice said above him, a new weight on the top of his head and warm hands on his shoulders.

“Oh,” Riku sighed but stayed still.  
Sora was using him as a headrest, taking advantage of the rare height difference. Riku's heart fluttered happily.  
“Was I falling again?” Riku whispered.

“A lil' bit,” Sora nosed his hair affectionately and clasped his shoulders briefly, grounding him, before letting go and slipping into the chair next to Riku's. The latter, completely lost in thought, did not realize how late it was, the candle on the table almost spent and his soup probably cold by now.

“But don't worry,” Sora reached for his hand, thumb brushing his knuckles soothingly.  
He planted a featherlight kiss on his cheek and smiled that smile only meant for him, and Riku could feel its Light right through his bones.  
“I've got you.” 

_I love you_.

Riku smiled softly. 

“I know.”

_Me too_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> I have... ideas for this AU, there are some glimpse of them here and there. But for now it's only a one-shot!  
> I love the Chosen One (and the Not-Quite-Chosen) theme in the KH-verse, I think about it a LOT.


End file.
